One in ten people living in Catalonia today (9.7%) arrived between 2021 and 2023. The figure (780,639 people) includes foreigners (the majority), people from other parts of Spain (a significantly lower number than in previous periods), and Catalans who had left and returned (10%: 40,710 people). The data comes from the 2024 population and housing census published this Thursday by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat). Overall, and in absolute terms, the population increase has meant 700,000 new inhabitants since 2014, reaching the current total of over 8 million, as deaths and emigration must be subtracted from the arrival figures. With the pandemic over, the attraction of people from elsewhere has surged again. Despite the increasing challenges in integrating newcomers due to the strain on social services (especially health and education), the Catalan economy and society possess remarkable dynamism and attractiveness. Catalonia is one of the regions in Europe with the most intense influx of migrants. Increasing numbers of skilled workers (the so-called expados) and many low-skilled workers have returned to perform essential jobs in the tourism, domestic work and care sectors.
This demographic pressure, coupled with the influx of tourists, is exacerbating the housing problem and, consequently, territorial mobility: a quarter of citizens have been forced to move to a different municipality during the same period (2021-2023), a phenomenon that particularly affects young people. But it is not exclusive to them. The recently implemented policies to curb speculation and increase the housing stock remain to be seen to what extent they will be able to reverse the housing access problem.
The housing problem is currently the main concern of the population and of policymakers. It is a basic need that is far from being universally guaranteed. Given the extreme difficulty in finding a place to live, substandard housing is commonplace. This is a long-standing situation that has only worsened in recent years. The Federation of Neighborhood Associations of Barcelona (FAVB) also released on Thursday a census of 8,000 apartments with structural deficiencies in various neighborhoods of the city, where people are living in precarious conditions of hygiene and safety. This rapid population increase, which if the current trend continues will already surpass the figures from the beginning of the century—in fact, we are in the midst of the second demographic boom of the 21st century—is placing Catalan society in a serious housing crisis that must be addressed with emergency measures and long-term policies that combine new forms of regulation (for landlords) and the rapid reactivation of construction, with the active participation of public administrations and developers, as well as housing managers. The challenge is enormous.
